Red Bull Music Academy have created YouTube playlists for nine of the book's playlists (permission was granted--thanks to Todd Burns and Torsten Schmidt for their support). So if you want to listen while you read, or even dance while you read, here are the links:

Walter Gibbons, David Mancuso and Arthur Russell--these are the three innovators from the downtown dance scene of the 1970s that I've been drawn to repeatedly while researching the culture. All were shy, Walter perhaps most of all, yet were also remarkably articulate when they communicated through music. I started to dig deep into Walter's contribution during research for Love Saves the Day and ended up positioning him as one of the key figures in the book thanks to his groundbreaking DJing style (which saw him innovative the technique of mixing between the breaks) and remixes (he edited the first commercial 12" single, "Ten Percent", and was the first DJ to manipulate the multitrack tapes on his mix of "Hit and Run"). Walter's increasingly strident religious convictions led him to marginalise himself from the dance scene towards the end of the 1970s but that didn't stop him from releasing one of the most innovative mixes of the 1980s--Strafe's "Set It Off". I've written quite extensively about Walter--see the articles listed below--and plan to write more in the future when I've had the chance to complete further interviews.

A self-described “black New Yorker”, Mark Kamins shaped the sound of New York party culture during the late 1970s and the 1980s, holding down residencies held at Trax, Danceteria and the Tunnel as the city’s dance floors burned with incandescent energy. As a DJ he played across the sonic spectrum whenever he took to the decks and as a producer his lengthy discography includes David Byrne’s “Big Business”, Quando Quango’s “Love Tempo”, Marcel King’s “Reach for Love” and “Beastie Groove” by the Beastie Boys. It’s just a pity that sound bite history has left him characterised as a so-called new wave DJ who’s best known for being an ex-boyfriend of Madonna and the producer of her debut single.

I interviewed Mark via Skype on 30 October 2008 and 3 November 2008 while researching a book on New York party culture 1980-83. At the time I understood that Danceteria was a key party space of the period but knew little about Mark—beyond his new wave and Madonna notoriety. We hit it off easily, just as I’m sure Mark hit it off with everyone he met, such was his charm, warmth and energy. We covered territory that left me convinced of Mark’s central importance to the story of New York during the incandescent era of the early 1980s. In early September 2012 I sent Mark a list of quotes I was going to use in the book so that he could check and approve them. Then, on 14 February, 2013 news broke that he died as a result of a heart condition aged 56.

Scores of us gathered on-line to mix sadness and shock with fond memories. I then search for material on the post-1983 period of Mark’s life we never properly got to discuss, only to re-appreciate that remarkably little is out there, with this exchange one of the most solid. Wondering if anybody else had interviewed Mark in depth, I decided to publish our exchanges on the first anniversary of his passing so that he could finally have his say. What follows is the full transcript.

Tim Lawrence: How did you get involved in party culture and DJing?Mark Kamins: Well, I remember my first club. It was Le Jardin. That was the first place I went to.You’re kidding me. When did you go there?I think that must have been ‘72.It opened in June 1973. I was also working in a record shop then, Record Connection, which was the first shop that sold European 45s to DJs. The 45s had an instrumental on the B Side. So the DJs would buy two 45s so they could do a mix from the instrumental to the vocal. And we were the first record shop for DJs in New York. It was called Record Connection on Washington Square.I thought Downstairs Records was the first.You mean the one in the subway station?Yes. Nicky DeKrechweo was it? Yes, Nicky and Lisa—Lisa Cooper. They were great. I had no idea you went back so far.Yes sure, you had to go back that far. I wouldn’t have been where I was in the eighties if I hadn’t started in the seventies, you know? You don’t come out of nowhere. You don’t magically appear. You have to have that history. Whether I was a DJ or not, I still had that history, and I worked at Record Connection for five years. That’s where I got familiar with the catalogues of music and producers and DJs. And working at the Record Connection I met all the gay DJs who worked in the gay clubs and the lesbian clubs, the black clubs. I saw what they bought and that led me to start DJing.

The following discography lists all of the recordings referred to inLove Saves the Day. Itprovides basic information on the name of the artist, the title of the recording, the nameof the label that originally released the recording, and the year in which the recording wasﬁrst released. Entries are listed in alphabetical order, ﬁrst according to the name of theartist, and subsequently according to the title of the recording. Albums are highlightedin italics, whereas individual album cuts, seven-inch singles, and twelve-inch singles arewritten in normal typeface.

Abaco Dream. ‘‘Life and Death in G & A.’’&nbsp;A&amp;M, 1969.

Area Code 615. ‘‘Stone Fox Chase.’’ Polydor, 1970.

Ashford & Simpson. ‘‘Found a Cure.’’ Warner Bros., 1979.

----------.‘‘It Seems to Hang On.’’ Warner Bros., 1978.

----------. ‘‘Over and Over.’’ Warner Bros., 1977.

----------. ‘‘Stay Free.’’ Warner Bros., 1979.

Atmosfear. ‘‘Dancing in Outer Space.’’ Elite, 1979.

Auger, Brian, & the Trinity. ‘‘Listen Here.’’ RCA, 1970.

Ayers, Roy, Ubiquity. ‘‘Don’ t Stop the Feeling.’’ Polydor, 1979.

----------. ‘‘Running Away.’’ Polydor, 1977.

Babe Ruth. ‘‘ The Mexican.’’ Harvest, 1973.

Barrabas.Barrabas. RCA, 1972.

----------. ‘‘ Wild Safari.’’ RCA, 1972.

----------. ‘‘ Woman.’’ RCA, 1972.

Barrow, Keith. ‘‘ Turn Me Up.’’ Columbia, 1978.

Bataan, Joe. ‘‘Aftershower Funk.’’ Mericana, 1973.

----------. ‘‘Latin Strut.’’ Mericana, 1973.

----------. ‘‘Rap- O Clap- O.’’ Salsoul, 1979.

----------.Salsoul. Mericana, 1973.

Bean, Carl. ‘‘I Was Born This Way.’’ Motown, 1977.

Beatles. ‘‘Here Comes the Sun.’’ Apple, 1969.

----------. ‘‘It’s Too Funky in Here.’’ Polydor, 1979.

----------. ‘‘Mother Popcorn (You Got to Have a Mother for Me).’’ King, 1969.

I first heard about Arthur Russell in 1997, just after I started to research Love Saves the Day. I was interviewing Steve D'Acquisto at the time and Steve started to rave about Arthur, Arthur, Arthur and even suggested that I should write a biography about him. That's what I started to do right after Love Saves the Day went into production during 2003. I loved Arthur's mutant dance tracks yet ended up being just as beguiled by other recordings, from the shimmering voice-cello sound of World of Echo to the electronic-funk-pop posthumously released by Audika on Calling Out of Context in 2004. Steve Knutson, head of Audika, and Tom Lee, Arthur's surviving partner, made Arthur's archives available to me during my research and became hugely important facilitators; I remain indebted. Arthur's spirit lives on through his music, released and re-eleased by Audika, Soul Jazz and other labels, through Matt Wolf's lovely documentary film Wild Combinationand, I sometimes like to think, through the publication of Hold On to Your Dreams. I have a significant amount of material I would like to upload to this page. It will take a while...

INTERVIEWS

I never got to interview Arthur, who passed away in 1992, 12 years before I started to research and write Hold On to Your Dreams. What a regret. I will post the small number of interviews conducted with Arthur in Articles, below, at some point in the future.